Field of Fantasies: Baseball Stories of the Strange and Supernatural

The 23 items in this entertaining anthology demonstrate how many ways it's possible to play, and play with, the national pastime. The stories (and one poem by Ray Bradbury) are genial and entertaining. Kim Stanley Robinson's "Arthur Sternback Brings the Curveball to Mars" is a discussion of baseball tactics on other planets. Ron Carlson's "My Last Season with the Owls" is a laidback description of a minor-league team featuring two vampire players who can only play in night games. The best pieces do go deeper into the personal obsessions of players and spectators, as in Valerie Sayers's "How to Read a Man," a heartbreaking look at the consequences of a middle-aged female fan's belief that she can predict exactly what ballplayers are about to do. Best of all is "The Franchise," John Kessel's smart, sly story of an alternate-world 1959 World Series when insecure George H.W. Bush, a 35-year-old major league rookie with daddy issues, must bat against ferociously arrogant Cuban pitcher Fidel Castro. Even if baseball is "only a game," this book shows how satisfyingly it can tweak our imagination. (Oct.)